Nissan to Change Leaf Marketing Strategy to Achieve Better S

[ruimegas]

Nissan to Change Leaf Marketing Strategy to Achieve Better Sales

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"Nissan has achieved little sales success with their all-electric Leaf, and while the car has sold in decent numbers, they are still behind what the Japanese manufacturer was hoping to sell. One of the reasons for this is the way in which the car was promoted, and its US sales success began to diminish in February, according to Al Castignetti, Nissan’s Vice President for sales.

"We were a little bit arrogant as a manufacturer when we went to the 50-state rollout [ . . . ] We had assumed that there were people just waiting for the vehicle who would raise their hand and say, 'Give me a Leaf, give me a Leaf, give me a Leaf' [ . . . ] We didn't prepare our dealers properly [ . . . ] We've pulled back a little bit and are telling our dealers, 'You don't market this car traditionally. You don't put it in the newspaper. You need to go and find the electric car buyer in your market,” said Castignetti.

Now, with the start of local US production of the Leaf, at the Smyrna plant, in Tennessee, they will also try a new approach to promoting the car. They will also launch a cheaper base version of the car, which will definitely boost its appeal, because some people just want an EV, and it doesn`t have to have leather or sat-nav to be appealing - the pricing being more important here.

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A technician works on a battery stack at Nissan’s Smyrna, Tenn., plant. The $1.6 billion Smyrna Leaf project was made possible by a low-interest federal loan.

This latest video ad shows the direction they are heading in with the promotion of the Leaf from now on."



Em: http://www.autoevolution.com/news/nissa ... 53068.html